A great variety of ways to treat, particularly clean, lavatory bowls, such as toilet bowls, have been described in the art. One particular way of treating lavatory bowls, such as toilet bowls, are so called rim-blocks. Indeed, rim-blocks are devices that dispense liquid or solid compositions directly into the flush water of a lavatory bowl from under the rim of said bowl. Such rim-blocks are usually attached by various means, such as hooks and the like, to the rim of the lavatory bowl. Every time a toilet equipped with a rim-block is flushed, an amount of composition is dispensed into the lavatory bowl and in turn acts in solution on the lavatory bowl surface. Due to the relatively large amounts of water used to flush lavatory bowls, the end-concentration of actives of said composition is relatively low. This is compensated by the fact that the composition is applied onto the lavatory bowl surface with every flush of the lavatory bowl. Liquid and solid rim-blocks are already known in the art.
The present invention in its most preferred embodiment relates to the repeated application to at least parts of a lavatory bowl surface a solution using a so-called liquid rim-block comprising at least one liquid composition.
Examples of liquid rim-blocks known in the art include a liquid rim-block device having a suspension means and at least two compartments for active substances (WO 02/40792), or a lavatory cleaning system comprising a dispenser for dispensing a liquid composition from under the rim of a lavatory bowl, wherein the composition has a viscosity of greater than 2500 mPa.s (WO 02/04951). Other similar systems are described in EP-A-775741 or WO 01/94520.
Even though, the currently known methods of treating a lavatory bowl according to the above cited art provide a good performance with regard to cleaning performance, it has been found by consumer research that the shine performance of the existing lavatory cleaning systems can be further improved.
Indeed, consumers are looking for a way to keep a lavatory bowl, in particular a toilet bowl, shiny over a significant number of rinse-dry cycles (i.e., toilet flushes). Indeed, mineral encrustation, such as limescale deposits, is formed on the lavatory bowl surface after each flush. In addition, dirt can be trapped in these encrustations. The encrustations and the dirt entrapped therein reduce the shine of the lavatory bowl over time.
It is therefore an objective of the present invention to provide a method of treating a lavatory bowl, wherein said method provides excellent shine performance to at least parts of the lavatory bowl surface treated.
It has now been found that the above objective can be met by a method for increasing the hydrophobicity of at least parts of a lavatory bowl surface according to the present invention.
An advantage of the present invention is that the methods as described herein have the ability to provide long lasting shine to at least parts of a lavatory bowl surface.